Because of legal restrictions on the use of the name, only white chickens raised within that area may be called "Bresse"; outside it, they are given the name "Gauloise"; the breed name combines both.

[2] In the early nineteenth century, the lawyer, politician, epicure and gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826), who was born at Belley in the Ain, is supposed to have described the Bresse chicken as "the queen of poultry, the poultry of kings".

[10] Like the La Flèche, which was raised and fattened in a similar fashion, the Bresse chicken had high standing in the market.

[2] Its recovery was due to fancy breeders, who selectively bred a sufficient number of white chickens for the breed to become stable.

[9]: 378 Although the Bresse Gauloise is principally famous as a meat breed, it is a good layer of large white eggs, which in the black Louhans variety may weigh 70 g.[2] Hens are usually non-sitting.